Daryl
Appearances
Next Level Pros
#142: Alex Hormozi: Why you're still broke // Next Level Pros Podcast
So one thing you actually brought up was how to do that in a partnership. And what we had to learn in a partnership was if someone was like super into making a certain decision, the other person wasn't, you had to decide like who was going to charge it. And if the person who wanted that decision was going to charge forward with that, the other person had to fully be behind them.
Next Level Pros
#142: Alex Hormozi: Why you're still broke // Next Level Pros Podcast
And so we had to make a decision of like, okay, I disagree with you, but it's your decision and I'll fully back you. And that's the end of it. You never go back and say, I told you so, or anything like that. It was like a hundred percent support go forward.
Next Level Pros
#142: Alex Hormozi: Why you're still broke // Next Level Pros Podcast
And so I think in partnerships, actually what's really important is to support decisiveness because it can create so much power in a relationship versus trying to like, I told you so, or gotcha, or, you know, you should have done what I said.
Next Level Pros
#142: Alex Hormozi: Why you're still broke // Next Level Pros Podcast
We always, how many times have we had the conversation of like, all right, that's just a monster in your head, right? We've had that over the years, over and over again. And it's kind of like the David and Goliath story where it's like, you, you build up this monster. It's like undefeatable. And yet you have this guy come in and it doesn't take that much effort. It just takes focus.
Next Level Pros
#142: Alex Hormozi: Why you're still broke // Next Level Pros Podcast
And that's really what it comes down to. Anything that sounds painful with focus, you can bust through it and like pass and move, move past it so easily.
Next Level Pros
#142: Alex Hormozi: Why you're still broke // Next Level Pros Podcast
And I think the way we looked at that was, you know, we wanted to live off of what we needed. Right. Essentials were taken care of. But what was crazy was the how exponentially it changed the business.
Next Level Pros
#142: Alex Hormozi: Why you're still broke // Next Level Pros Podcast
And I think that's a hard principle for people to learn because most people look at it as I got the money now, take it and run versus, OK, now that I got money, how can I make this business thrive even more? And there's a lot of challenges with that. But if you have the right mindset, it's a powerful thing to do in a business.
Next Level Pros
#142: Alex Hormozi: Why you're still broke // Next Level Pros Podcast
Let's dive in, Chris. So Levi, pain now versus pain later. How have you experienced that in your life? When have you tried to avoid pain now just to experience it later?
Next Level Pros
#142: Alex Hormozi: Why you're still broke // Next Level Pros Podcast
So Chris, actually I wanna ask you differently because we work with a lot of business owners and you see companies at all different levels who've been there for a different period of times, timeframes. What do you see as like a business owner? What are some of the short-term things avoidances that people do so they don't have to go through the pain now, but they pay it later.
Next Level Pros
#142: Alex Hormozi: Why you're still broke // Next Level Pros Podcast
One of the things that I notice is like it's the amount of hesitation that you allow, the harder it is to build that discipline. And so people that are like, all right, let's go do it. Just go do it. Just go do it. It's like if you've ever done cliff jumping, the longer you stand up there, the more impossible it is to jump.
Next Level Pros
#142: Alex Hormozi: Why you're still broke // Next Level Pros Podcast
And so that's where it's like, decide what you're gonna do and then just take the action.
Next Level Pros
#142: Alex Hormozi: Why you're still broke // Next Level Pros Podcast
I have no idea what it's like to eat a frog. So I'm struggling with the concept.
Next Level Pros
#142: Alex Hormozi: Why you're still broke // Next Level Pros Podcast
And going back to hesitation, how many people, I see this all the time where it's like people who are like wanting to improve their business. For example, like our courses or our community, the people that hesitate are
Next Level Pros
#142: Alex Hormozi: Why you're still broke // Next Level Pros Podcast
to join our community are the ones that are stuck and never change and then you see people who join our community they're like yep this is what i want they go and you see them they're able to make change way faster and then you see them have results that the other guy wants but won't make the changes to do and so i think
Next Level Pros
#142: Alex Hormozi: Why you're still broke // Next Level Pros Podcast
if you realize like if you're hesitating, all you're doing is you're prolonging pain, you're prolonging like suffering, and you're probably putting more energy into that than it would take to just have the success you're looking for.
Next Level Pros
#142: Alex Hormozi: Why you're still broke // Next Level Pros Podcast
And that's where I see people that when they decide to make a decision and take action, like everything changes. What's one story just popped my head were when you were in Vegas and you actually married that couple that have been dating for years. Right. Right. And you just made them like you. You convinced them that they already wanted to do this. Let's do it. Tell us a little bit about that.
Next Level Pros
#142: Alex Hormozi: Why you're still broke // Next Level Pros Podcast
That's incredible.
Next Level Pros
#142: Alex Hormozi: Why you're still broke // Next Level Pros Podcast
Well, the reality is if you make a bad decision and you're decisive in that decision, your ability to make the other decisions to get out of it are a lot easier. right? And so there's really like so much power in just being decisive because it can get you in a really good situation.
Next Level Pros
#142: Alex Hormozi: Why you're still broke // Next Level Pros Podcast
It can also get you in a bad situation, but you can get out of it a lot easier, which just teaches you the next time how to do it better and better.
Next Level Pros
#142: Alex Hormozi: Why you're still broke // Next Level Pros Podcast
It's funny. I think the only thing that can cause an issue is if you are decisive, you make a bad decision and then you go back to old habits of I'm not going to be as decisive anymore. Then you're in a worse position. But I think if you stay decisive, you always work yourself in the best situation possible because you're taking action.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
That's sales 101. It's how to win friends and influence people. Get people to buy into your dream. Us entrepreneurs, we really are good at that. We're really good. I'm an optimist. I don't care if the cup is empty. I make it half full. But people are like, dude, that's not even real. Like there's no way that's possible. I'm like, there is.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And I have this ability to go find the best of the best and I pay up. I don't discount. I buy like I want to be bought from. So I've got, right now I've got seven consultants I work with. And some of them are speaking coaches. I got the trainer. You know, I just say, like I was on this podcast about two weeks ago in Vegas and the guy says, I feel like you're in a time machine.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And I said, the time machine is going to find people that are better at one thing. Like the best of the best. They're known for this one thing. And I literally reflect and say, I'm not very good at this. And I don't want to be well-rounded, but I want to be the best at marketing, culture, sales, and very like leadership. And I want to hire everything else, but I hire people smarter than me.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Absolutely. That's the fear is like, what if, what if I hire this guy and he takes my whole team and he starts to, I don't have that gene in me. Like, I'm not worried if I train them. What if they leave? What if they stay? So I think the number one thing that's changed dramatically is I started becoming an avid reader. I started a podcast seven years ago. I started asking for help.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Success leaves clues. I asked Service Titan, who has the best conversion rate in HVAC? I fly my ass out there and visit them. I said, who has the best booking rate? Flew out to Memphis, Tennessee two months ago, visited them.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Not low, low, low income where we were like didn't have clothes to wear to school, but definitely not doing great. And I just love helping people, man. And I'm glad we get to do this podcast.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
I'll go to Service Titan because they're my CRM and they've got the data. They'll make an introduction if the person allows us, like they got to say, sure, you can share my data and tell them I'm the best. You know, they take my phone calls usually. If I want to find out who's the best at SEO, I'll search roofing repair Phoenix or HVAC repair Phoenix.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And then I'll see who's ranking organically, number one. I'll do a couple of things, AH refs. I'll say, how the hell do they do this? I'll knock on their door. I'll buy them all lunch. I'll say, can I talk to your VP of marketing? And they'll say yes, because I say I'm not going to compete with you. I want to help you guys. We could be referral partners.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And I come from a place of what's in it for them. That's my superpower is like I'm relentless. I don't care if you say no to me. You're going to say yes eventually.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
2017 second podcast I've done, The Home Service Expert. I meet this guy named Al Levy. He's like, hey, I live in Scottsdale. You're in Tempe. He goes, would you want to meet for lunch? I said, absolutely. I sit down with him. He had to be 65 at the time. And he just commentated the whole conversation. But luckily, I brought a notebook and I'm writing everything down.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
He's saying he goes, hey, young buck. He's like, you're the first guy I've ever met with to actually take notes. He's like, would you mind if I came and looked at your shop? And I said, I'd love for you to. And, dude, he tore me a new asshole. He goes, let me see your manuals. He goes, I could have stole your whole warehouse with your own forklift, and there was no cameras, nobody in there.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
The garage was wide open. He goes, there's calendars on every wall. There's Google Calendar.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
I wasn't keeping much of it. That was revenues for vanity, profits for sanity. And he says, I'll work for you. I'll work with you, but it's not going to be cheap. I'll consult you. He goes, but when I get done with you, this business is going to be very vanilla. There's going to be systems processes. There's going to be manuals. There's going to be an org chart and a depth chart.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
I'm going to teach you the eight steps of delegation. And he goes, you're not going to be, you're the best firefighter I've ever met. He goes, the fires are going to be out and you're going to have a process. He went out with five of my technicians. He said, every one of your technicians, different sales process, different way of doing springs, different ways of doing rollers.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
They drove differently. There was everything's different. He goes, one guy's got a long ass beard. One guy's got tattoos on his face. Is there policies? And I'm like, well, not really.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And he's like, what's the dress code? What happens if your truck breaks down? What happens if a CSR doesn't show up? Do you have a depth chart that the that the dispatcher could step in? And so we worked for years together. And that's his book, The 7-Power Contractor. He's 71 now, and he's the best.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
If I didn't meet Al Levy and respect him, he walks in one day and I said, hey, have you read this book? And he goes, Tommy, just stop right now. He goes, I'm not going to tell you to stop learning. But until you implement my practices, he goes, I will fire you as a client. He goes, you turn your cell phone off when we're in the room together.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
You focus on what I'm telling you and you implement these things or we're not going to work together.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And I said, you know, all right, Al. I used to start talking. He'd be like, stop. Let me finish. And I'm like, and we said it. We built manual after manual. And when things went wrong, he said, it's not in the manual. Put it in the manual. And he goes, you're not reading the manual every week. Go back to that. Two years into it, he showed me a picture of my truck. He took a picture.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
He put it in black and white. He goes, what pops out to you that you're a garage door company? You got Angie's List, Yelp, the BBB. He goes, you got eight things you do, rollers, cables, bearings, crash doors, bottom rubber. He goes, this is really bad. He goes, your brand sucks. He goes, your stickers don't look like your billboards.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
literally your signatures are all different when anybody emails me. He goes, every single thing, your valve pack looks nothing like your clipper. There's no coordination at all. I said, so what do you want me to do? We're $40 million. He goes, I want you to rebrand. He goes, you called Dan Antonelli with kick charge. And I called Dan Antonelli. He's like, it's going to be 40 grand.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
I'm like, I'm already successful. And Dan goes, I'm telling you right now, let me just build you a brand. I said, can my face be on the side of the truck? Because it already was. And there's a whole reason, a story behind that. And he's like, these colors suck. The whole schematic sucks. And Dan built a new brand. We jumped. We became the most, we attracted affluent clients.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
My guys still tell me the stories when they showed up in that van with the right, oh, by the way, all my shirts were different colors. They were just golf shirts with a logo. Al Levy said it's going to be all black from now on. These don't fade. Al Levy did this. And I owe him a lot, man. I owe him a lot. And dude, everything changed. The conversion rate went up. We started becoming a brand.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
People started higher average tickets. They knew we were the best. They said, I know you guys aren't the cheapest, but you'll be here the same day and you'll cover your warranty. Everything changed. And it Al did not know the financial world, so he called Alan Rohr. And they taught us a lot about finance, but I didn't have the right CFO. That was the other game changer, getting the right CFO.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Boom, bottom line, bottom line, bottom line, bottom line. Now we're at 25% of the bottom line because of that side. And by the way, I'm not the best at balance sheets today. I got a master's degree in business.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Oh, we lived a long time because I always blamed it. We're growing, we're growing, we're growing. I'm reinvesting in the company. I literally told everybody, yeah, who cares about the bottom line? We're growing. We're putting it back in. That's what I hear a lot of people say.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Yeah, we're putting it back in. We're putting it back in. And Al goes, one day I called Al and I said, I've got a home equity line to make payroll. And he saw me writing checks for my home equity line back to make payroll. What year is this? This is 2018, 2019. Crazy. And I would never trim the fat. I say, we're going to need these guys. And he says, Tommy, he goes, I'm pretty worried.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And Adam comes to me and he goes, I'm pretty worried. And, uh, It was, I didn't realize people were stealing a lot of the parts. I didn't realize that we were totaling trucks left and right. I didn't realize any of these things. There was no, my insurance, I was double paying on leases. Nobody told me. And they were keeping the money.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
I mean, literally, I had guys stealing, doing side jobs left and right. The business was not, it was just, there was a shadow that I couldn't see.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And we fixed it. We started printing money. Keegan actually came into town, and he looks, and I got all my financials of every market. And he starts highlighting stuff, and he looks at me. And he goes, Tommy, you need to close four markets today. And I go, dude, this is just past management. Like, I could turn it around. And he goes, Tommy, look at me.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
You need to close these markets, do a relocation package. I'm going to show you how to do it. They need to close today. You are bleeding so bad.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
You would be at 19.8% if you close these four markets. I closed them that day. I mean, you talk about what could go wrong, Murphy's Law. I've had it hit me on the face a thousand times, but here's the deal. I'm glad it all happened because I'll never make those mistakes again, ever. Like the lessons were not only hard, they were almost impossible. But I never wanted to quit.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
I never said, dude, I don't want to go to work today. Like I'm done. I was a fighter. And I mean, a lot of people, you guys know this story. You're three feet from gold. You're one step away, one decision away, one hire away from just making it through. But some people give up.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And you'll get there, but you're going to be like in a nursing home.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
He didn't jump in and do the work, which is so easy to do.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And then I find myself saying, I want you guys to go build me a plan. Give me three options. I want you to give me the SWOT analysis on each of them. And maybe I'll put a little curveball in there. And I'd like to see this and this. I like plan two, but let's bring. plan three, this piece to plan two. Absolutely. You do the work. You guys make plenty of money.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
You got an equity incentive program, which is profit units. It doesn't need to be me anymore. I want to walk in a room and be like, there's no freaking way I can keep up with Chris and Daryl. These guys are just so much better at this one thing. that there are people in this company that I'm like, I don't stand a chance.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
So why even like, but, but I got to tell them and I got to, you know what prompting is when you like go to chat GBT, you got to ask the right questions. You got to make sure you're doing the right things you got. And they'll help us find the answers.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And I don't think there's, I just think a lot of people are like, you hire people that just aren't at your level because you're afraid, or maybe you can't afford them. When I learned about an equity incentive program.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Dude, I could attract a,
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Yeah, it's true. It's a skill. I mean, people are going to school right now, kids. The whole classes, the whole education is called prompting. That's the newest thing in education. There's a guy, Send Out Cards, he's out of Utah. He was the first big speaking I did. He wrote a book called Prompting. And it's so true. I got a question for both of you guys, and I want you guys to go back and forth.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Changed your outlook. Yeah. You know, I just played a video to my entire company, 800 people. And it's called Bring the Fire. We do it once a month. And the video, I took 13 minutes, made it into three. Giuseppe edited it. And it said, everyone wants a great life. You want to fall in love. You want a great sex life. You want to have your faith. You want to have the best body.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Because you guys might take each other's answers, so I'm going to do it this way. So you look at SoulGen.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And I want you each to go back and forth, three each, of the biggest pieces. And a lot of it's hiring and the marketing strategy. But what was... Let's start with the successes. And it could be you learned from a mistake, but what were the things that really drove growth, culture, revenue? And if you had to do three each and go back and forth,
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
That's where you guys figured it out on the social side of the education.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And what would you say was your biggest channel on a YouTube, Facebook or Insta?
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Like half of that was going to Facebook.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
You guys got to alternate.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
You want the red seat apart when you walk in the room. But what harder are you willing to accept? What struggle are you willing to accept? Because studies show over and over again, none of these things come without their obstacles. Everybody wants the views. No one wants to take the hike.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
You've heard of Steve Jobs, right? Heard of Steve Jobs of solar.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Well, that's the ability. Listen, that's sales 101. It's how to win friends and influence people. Get people to buy into your dream. Us entrepreneurs, we really are good at that. We're really good. I'm an optimist. I don't care if the cup is empty. I make it half full. But people are like, dude, that's not even real. There's no way that's possible. You're not going to another galaxy.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And not a lot of people are cut out for this. Everybody says, I'm going to quit my nine to five because I want to be an entrepreneur. But that comes through. The number one word that comes to mind is delayed gratification. People want the possessions. They want to show off to their friends. They want to keep up with the Joneses. One of my best things is you will never save money.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Correct. Well, you know, I work with Dan Martell by Back to Your Time. And he goes, one thing I've realized about you is your word is your bond. You shake somebody's hand. But what if I told you what I want you to practice is not breaking your word, but undoing your word. If you told the neighbors five years ago you were going to mow their lawn every week, he goes –
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Find them a replacement, pay them some of the money back, and get out of that. He goes, sometimes what I feel like, Tommy, is that your idea of yourself is like my word is my bond. If I shake your hand, it's paved in gold. What made sense for Tommy two years ago, you need to renegotiate these things and do it fast and not feel like you're letting people down. He goes, I just did it last week.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
He goes, I promised this guy I would speak at his event. He goes, dude, the event's 300 people. I got to travel. He's like, I had to renegotiate it. I got a great sub. He's like, I told him straight up, guys, if you ever want to come visit, I'll make it up to you. You come out to Kelowna. Usually I charge a lot for this. But he goes, practice that.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Become good at that because that's going to be your biggest weakness. It's not that you're a liar. It's not that you're not morally correct. But you need to work on that because – That's a great statement that you said. It's like, you're right. Sometimes we need to pivot. And I'm not trying to let people down. That's the worst feeling in the world, like letting somebody down.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
But at the end of the day, like Al always told me, Al Levy, he's like, you just got to be able to still have, especially with family, you still got to be able to have Thanksgiving together. And like, people are not like, if you've got a good reasoning behind it, they're not like in tears. You say, listen, this is why. And there are hard conversations.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
There's a great book called Fierce Conversations. And it's hard to have these conversations. And I don't like to have them with everybody. The close five people, I feel bad for my mom, my sister, and my dad because they've had the fierce – I've been fierce with them.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
If you can't save money at $50,000 a year, good luck at $200,000, $300,000. Money really does become, when they say money is not the, the love of money is the root of all evil. But the fact is that people secretly love money. They love the attention. They love the Ferraris. They love showing up to their friends. In fact, I'm getting in the best shape of my life.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And, you know, solar is a tough business, man, to keep going.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
I've got this open book policy. Everybody knows exactly what we do, day, week, month, down to the lowest level. I don't mean low level, but just I'd say the front line. And people are like, why would you share that? People are going to know how much money you make. I'm like, yeah, we make great money. I'm like, this is a business. My clients want us to make great money.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
They want us to be around in 10 years. My vendors want us to make great money. And we take care of our clients. We take care of our vendors. And we take care of our people. We give equity down to the installer technician level. Love it. And I said this. I'm like, guys, I want you to be millionaires. I want you to be bought in. But what's in it for me?
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
I want you to think what's in it for – when you're a leader, you should say what's in it for me from the co-worker standpoint, the people that work for you. Yep. And this idea is if they're winning. So when we sit down, I want to know, Chris, what are your goals? What are your dreams? What do you want out of life? Like, you want to buy a house?
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
You want to take your kids on this big trip each year? You reverse engineer those goals, and I'll say, Chris, if we just increase your conversion rate and you worked with this guy for one week, sounds like a step back. You would hit your goal. You'd buy your house in 2025 instead of 2027. Like, doesn't that, don't you want that?
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And sometimes you look at their face and they're like, that's not really my dream. Like literally that's what my wife wants to do. And you say, you really got to peel the onion back and figure out what their dreams are. Instead of a performance improvement plan, how can you get them to buy in? If they don't buy in,
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
I love walking in and people being like, what the hell is going on? But that's the main thing, though, is I feel incredible. Like literally, like I feel like I could take on the world. And this thing about faith, fitness, and family, I always had the finance figured out, but I was missing the other three. And I was not only off balance, but I was like really tilted to one side.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
You know, I always say, listen, I'm going to give you the opportunity to go work for my competitor. Yeah.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
That is the worst management ever.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
COVID. COVID was a big one. I didn't know. We heard about this coronavirus, and everybody's like, corona. We didn't know. And then people started dying. It's all over the news. And it was a really hard day, because we started having clients soon.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
we didn't i didn't know if it was going to kill off half the population i just knew no matter what this company was going to survive and this guy tyler walks into my office and he goes hey man you don't look so good he's like everything's going to be okay he's like you know my wife makes really good money she makes more than i do he goes i don't expect anything in return you don't have to pay me back but why don't you cut my pay in half wow this is a technician
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And I just kind of looked down. I said, we don't need to do that. I said, we're still fine. And the next, there was a line. And one of the gals walks in the call center and says, hey, why don't you take all my PTO? I don't need it. Just if anybody's sick. And people just started coming into my office and just not complaining, just offering me this.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And I really reflected and I said, I love these people, but I got to become a better leader. I need to work on me. Because if they're willing to do that for us, I need to do way more. I need to have a dream so big that everybody else's dream could fit inside. And we can accomplish that. And, you know, there's this book called The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And he wrote down 100 things he wanted in The Perfect Wife. He literally wrote down, you know, the greatest mother and every single feature. And he reads this list and he's going through it and he goes, I can never pull a chick like this. So we wrote down 100 things he would need to become to be worthy of such a great partner. And so I needed to write down 30 things that I would need.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
I didn't do 100. But I wrote down a great communicator. Like, I wrote down all these things that I needed to become to be worthy of such great people on my team. And, you know, I always thought I tried. But that was a rude awakening of, like, whoa, dude. Like, these people are actually not only bought in, but they got your back, man. Like they're going to go to war with you.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And now I'm just trying to fix it. And the more I work on me, literally the more I work on me, the better I am for everybody.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And it's a great feeling, man. And I'll tell you, like we made it through that. We got the PPP money went straight into marketing and that just exploded us. And, you know, we've all got these stories of like the business was doing good, but it went to like excellent. And now I feel like we're making history. And I'm just not done yet.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
It's true. And I'll tell you guys, this is a little hint for the listeners is, and I'll go back to Al Levy, and I've had a lot of consultants. There's a lot of great people. Al said, what I'm going to show you how to do is no longer be a slave to your workers. He goes, I don't want you to recruit anybody because you pay more and more. You don't need to find people with bad habits.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
He goes, we're going to show you how to make homegrown badasses. And he goes, you're going to find great personalities and you're going to teach them the skills. Before, I would just say, I'm just going to pay you more. I'll pay you a higher percentage, higher hourly, whatever it was. Those people are willing to go for the next $10 more.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And so we built homegrown, loyal, badasses that make a lot of money. And all I did was listen. And I said, Chris, you don't believe in these rollers, do you? You think there's some better out there? And he goes, yeah, the double Z bearing, lifetime self-lubricating. I go, where do we buy them from? Let's bring them in. This guy started selling rollers on every single job because he believed.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
So then I created this policy. If you find a better product than I get at MassScale, we'll bring that product in. And we have options. We don't give out ultimatums. We give choices. And when they actually had a say, when you listen to, I'm sure Henry Ford listened to the assembly line to make it way better. When you start listening and saying, instead of saying, no, no, no, we're working on it.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
We're behind a desk. You guys are in the field. We know better. No, we don't. No, we don't. Listen to the people fighting the boots on the ground. They're the guys sweating in 140 degrees. They're the guys going out zero degrees in Minnesota. So sometimes my management hates it. And I don't like to call management my coaches.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
My coaches hate it because they're like, why do you always listen to them? And I'm like, they're not complaining. They're coming up with solutions if we just listen.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
so much value. Money is irrelevant. There's been study after study after about $74,000. It's not irrelevant, but it's not as big. If you could meet your financial needs, a basic car, put clothes on your kids' backs, eat good. There's so many more important things, especially in this new generation is they want to be part of something. They want to be involved. They want to get trained.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
They want to know what's going on. It's not like the baby boomers that were just like,
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Yeah.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And so- Meritocracy versus tenure versus what you've done in the past. You need to prove yourself every day just like I do, just like every person here.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Did you find a honey hole? Did you, like, I know, like, some people say enterprise discount tire, like... Was there like this, man, if we get – it could have been a server from a certain type of restaurant. It could have been a – is there anything?
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
They influence. Robert Cialdini.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
I got a question.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
I had a guy call me yesterday. And he was asking me about Service Titan. Very, very successful roofer. And he said, I think, Tommy, next year, I think by the end of the year, I'm going to do a deal. And he said, I'm not going to do PE because I've heard the horror stories. I think I'm going to do strategic. And I go, you only hear horror stories, but you don't hear all the great stories.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
There's a partnership fit. I got lucky. And by the way, my PE company, not everything they've done worked perfectly. But as the founder, you got to take some of the heat. You got to buy it. You got to realize these are financial engineers. If they could do what you could do, they go do it. They don't make as much money as we make as founders or in the business.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
So I take a lot of heat for myself to say, I'm going to listen to them. They make a lot of valid points. But what is your take? I know there's some things you wish worked out differently.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Probably both of you. And I know – I don't know how much you're at liberty to talk about this. Oh, we can talk. But what is your take on just selling your business, rolling equity, and what would you have done differently and how would you have acted different? What are some of the things you would have changed?
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
It's worse than a prostate exam.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Did you go through a formal process where you sat down with a bunch of different – Yeah, yeah.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
How did you guys, you know, I'm curious, you guys, you basically said you guys are like soulmates. I mean, when you guys started in business, tell me a little bit about your relationship. Who handles what? How do you guys grew together?
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
They will. I'll tell you guys a little the hard truth. is until the performance goes down. Like, I think most PE groups are like, they got a five to seven year stint. And they're like, if it's not broken, don't fix it. But I'll tell you this, I know a lot of guys, you get $10 million, $20 million, $50 million. The guys that get those checks, they're building a house. They're driving a Lambo.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
They've done the work. Their families need to enjoy it. So they're not all there. And so I think that if you go to a meeting, especially in the first year, and you're not prepared, and you don't have the answers, and you're late, and you're not – and there's like you see some performance gaps. They're like that's a double-edged sword for PE is like – We're going to give this person all this money.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Are they as motivated still? So I think there's their side too. For sure. And I'm not saying – like look, I've realized I just flipped the page and I said go back to work. And people are like, you're the same dude. I'm like, I know because quite frankly, I don't – I won't say I'm an imposter but – It's not that I'm not worth the money, but it's like I never wanted it to change me.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
I know people that have changed. They're like, ooh, filet mignon. And I'm like, dude. And I order filet mignon. But the point is, and I always ordered it. But the point is, like, I'll never let money change me. And I've seen money change people and I've seen it destroy people. I've seen people afraid to hang out with certain people because now they these friends come back into your life.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
This family comes back into your life because they know you hit it.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And it literally ruins people. They don't know how to deal with it. Right. You know, I like Mr. Mr. Wonderful says, if you come to me about an investment or any money, I give you a one-time gift. It's not a lot of money. And I make you sign paperwork saying you're never allowed to come to me again.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
I love his tape. And the deal is, is like, dude, I don't feel any anxiety or stress from family. They're welcome to come to my house. They see it's a marvelous house. It's a beautiful house. I bought my house. I live in a small apartment. Actually, the technicians stay there. Mine's a thousand square feet, three bedroom. Tiny kitchen. Every one of my buddies, very, very successful.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
They came and stayed there. They're like, what the hell? I'm like, dude, it's close to work. I own houses. And the thing was I bought a big house because there's one thing you can't buy, and that's experiences. This allowed me to have my dad's 70th birthday. You know, Bree's niece's third birthday. My mom's 70th birthday.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
This allowed me to be around my closest people, play Big Buck Hunter and Golden Tee when I want, and do fun stuff and have pool parties. So I looked at it as I'm buying a way to spend time. And you can't buy time, but you can make the most out of it. Absolutely. You can leverage time, though. Buy people's time. You can buy a lot of time.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
You know, I realized from Buy Back Your Time with Dan Martell, he goes... He goes, Tommy, let's just go over what you got in Goldman Sachs. And I told him, and he goes, what do you think your worth is right now with the 50% you rolled? And we did, we kind of analyzed what I make per hour. And he goes, how much time do you spend driving? And we went through, did this kind of a map of time.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
I'm like, not really. So he's like, it's not that you deserve it or not. It's not that you're not humble. But he's like, you bought back 15 hours. And you're thinking in dollars instead of percentages. He's like, I've done the math on your interest. He's like, you don't touch anything. He's like, you're buying time. And he's like, tell me about your EA.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And he's like, is she capable of sitting in on meetings and preparing the hour-long meeting to get you back 45 minutes to make it to 15 minutes? And he's like, show me your priorities. What are you going to do next year? Like the great big things with your family. And like, then he repositioned and prompted it differently. He repositioned the way I look through my lens.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And all of a sudden I looked through his lens and I said, this is the right thing to do. Because before I was like, this is douchey dude, driver. And like, he's got this trainer, right? This guy's jacked, like really jacked. And he tells his trainer, he goes, why don't you take your shirt off and post on like social media? And, like, show yourself working out. It's inspiring.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And he goes, dude, that's so stupid. He's like, I hate those guys. And he's like, well, who's that pitcher right there? He goes, you know who that is. It's Arnold Schwarzenegger. And he goes, what pitcher is that? One of the years he won Mr. Olympia. He goes, why do you have that pitcher? He goes, dude, it's motivating as hell. Look at him. He goes, you don't think that you'd motivate other people?
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And now the guy posts online and he actually helps people improve their life. It was just seeing through this different lens. And that's what Dan's helped me to do because I had this exact lens perfect for the business. I didn't have it at home. I didn't know. I said, I don't chef. Like, I don't need a chef. Then I found myself ordering Uber Eats every night, not eating healthy.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Now it's hard not to eat healthy because if I don't like something, I'm like, make something different. And it does sound a little douchey, but it's not. It really isn't. It's just a way. And by the way, I invited a lot of people over. It's not like selfish, I don't think. It's me being more for my people.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
I'll see you guys later. A lot of times this happens.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
These guys don't know how to market like I market. Marketing is probably the fundamental thing that I've done very well. And I told them from the get-go. We were very clear. I'm in control of marketing. I will make the phone ring off the hook. And by the way, marketing is recruiting as well. So you let me handle this. You guys can put your financial engineers, your FP&A team.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Tell me where we're losing money. Tell me about a cost receivable. Tell me all the analysis you guys do. I'm good with that. There's certain things... And I quite frankly, I go to war. I go to war with some of these guys. And they say, if you feel that strongly and you're that passionate about it, we know it's going to work. And you know what they always remind me? They go, we didn't bet on A1.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
We don't care about anyone. They do care. They said, we bet on you. They remind me all the time. This is your baby. We bet on the best of the best. But what does that do to me? It puts all the onus on me. It makes every decision I think about that harder. It says, is this going to grow the company and the profit? Is this going to take care of the people? I asked Ara, the founder of Service Titan.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
This is a really interesting question. I said, you've got a lot of investors, dude. You also have the trades that you're loyal to. You've got a fiduciary responsibility right here. You've got a moral and ethical obligation over here. How do you do that? And he said, well, take, for example, you, Tommy. He goes, we didn't allow anything HVAC, plumbing, or electrical in.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
He goes, I had investors back then. He goes, I spent $100,000 sending the success managers out there because I bought into you. And, of course, the investors are going, why are you spending $100,000 on a garage door company? But you told me you were going to take over the industry, and you did everything you said you were going to do. You've brought in 500 companies to service Titan.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
You've got another guy like Ishmael. Horrible, not using the software right, bashing us all over the internet. We spent six figures on him to get him fixed. We got another 500 accounts from him. So I go and I fix things and I take chances and I make them a good return. I'm not always right, but I do the right thing for the contractor and it's the right thing to do.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And I was like, dude, I didn't even prepare you for that question. It was the best answer I could have ever imagined. And so after I left there at Service Titan, I started thinking a lot about my one-star reviews. Because now I used to say, let's get 17 more. Of course, you're going to get better views.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Now I'm like, what can we do to make that a learning opportunity to turn that person into a raving fan? Because ours, every story he said, all my haters that got on a service site and complained became raving fans when we fixed it. We were committed to excellence. Those were the hardest people. Those were the high Ds. Those were the assholes that weren't going to buy in.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And, you know, the fact is I'm on a podcast right now. I was on a podcast earlier today. That is, like, my counselor. That's my therapist. Right. Because I get to ask questions, and I got a lot of stuff. Like, I love trailing 12 at the time of close. That's a good one. Because you lose a few months sometimes. Yes.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
That would have been an extra million bucks. No.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
That's freaking nuts. So on a multiple basis, guys, you know what's interesting is I got a buddy of mine. I won't go into detail, but he calls them COVID babies. I've been doing this 17 years, but we really started to really take off. But I'll tell you this. As I'm sitting there with Aro, who's got 12,000 companies, he goes, you're one of the only unicorns right now in this. This is a recession.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
He goes, we're in a recession.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
But the fact is, people are like, who do you want to win the election? I'm like, of course I have a side I'm taking, but I'm like, I don't care. I'm going to win either way. I'm like, I don't care because if it turns into a buyer's market or a seller's market, I'm winning. I'm going to, if it turns into a buyer's market, I'm going to buy real estate cheap. I'm going to buy companies for cheap.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And if it turns into a seller's market, I'm going to have more clients than I know what to do with either way. I'm not going to let Ukraine or Israel or anything else, only what I can control. I can't control the traffic. So what's in my control? And people say, you know, you got to understand Christmas is coming up. And it was a hot, the summer didn't hit right for HVAC. Everyone's got a reason.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And they say, you don't understand my industry. You don't know my market. It's not like that here. These people are offering it for cheap. I'm like, and you're competing on price? You can compete on three things. Be the cheapest, be the best warranty with the best parts and time. Same day. We're going to be out there when you need us most. And so many people pick, I'm going to be price.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And Alex Ramosi, you know him well. You know him better than I do. He talks about this. Most of the people that are competing on price are broke. They're making barely a living. And literally you're copying the company that's been doing this for 30 years that doesn't have a business that they can sell their phone number, not their business. And these businesses come try to sell to me.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And I'm like, I look at their financials and I go, well, you pay yourself $180,000 to replace you is going to be $100,000. So you found $80,000. and your business makes a hundred grand on top of that, 180, I could only give you a million dollars for this business. They're like, are you crazy? I got 40,000 customers. They don't believe it. They don't understand.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And I'm like, no one wants to pay you for your goodwill and your bullshit. Like, look. We need hard EBITDA, baby.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
We need some cash. So I take out, the way PE works is we take out loans. Right. That makes the numbers way better. Yep. And it's gotta be able to pass what's called a quality of earnings. And you get some ad backs in there. And some of those are questionable. You could add back your daughter's pay. You could add back the car you're driving. Some of them, though, are like ridiculous.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And then you say, you know, there's all these questions. Are you going to roll equity? How's this going to work? But other than that, there's really no questions. It's like black and white. And everybody wants to live in this color area. Well, you know, and here's the worst thing. They say, imagine what you're going to do with this. You've got a higher price. You've got a higher conversion rate.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And I'm like, so you want me to pay you for what I'm going to do with it? It's like, you want me to pay you? So I'm going to buy your house that's in horrible shape. And I've got to fix it up. I've got to repaint it, redo the roof. You want me to pay you for what the ARV is going to be?
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And they really think they're like, but this is you got to understand this is their life. This is their largest asset. And other people go like this. They go, I'm not going to spend $30,000 on a brand. I'm getting my brand right. You're betting the farm on this. You don't get the brand right. You know, if I said you're going to sell in six months, what would you do?
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
They say, well, I definitely cut these two guys and I top grade this and I do this. Why don't you do that? Like, you know what you need to do with Uncle Joe that's been milking for the last five years. Why don't you start thinking I'm going to be selling in three months, even if you're not. Do the right things. Take the hard choices. You'll meet this big dude tatted up.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
like drives a Harley, he's afraid to fire. He's a manly man, but he won't make the hard decisions. What if you manned up or womaned up and made these hard, hard decisions today and realized, I need to get this to this and there's nothing going to stop me. No excuses. even with getting in shape, I got a guy, you don't know what happened to my shoulder. I can't lift. Dude, you don't even walk.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
I watched you drink a 12 pack last night. You are making excuses, thinking in a 12 step process, I'd never been through one. What's the first, what's the first thing you do? Admit that you've got a problem. Exactly. And most people are going, oh, this, this. You don't understand this.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
I'm not good at it to this day.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
All right, guys, we're doing a double podcast here. Chris Lee and Daryl Kelly are here. We've got the founder podcast. He's the home service expert.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Here's the deal. This is where everybody gets confused. A lot of my coaches, a lot of different people, they go, do you realize how much this guy's made? And they go, he should be running more jobs than two a day. And I go, he spent 10 years to master the craft to be the best. Tom Brady doesn't have to play every scrimmage. He just needs to play in the Super Bowl.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And I said, he's earned the right to make 400 grand. You know why? Because he's earned the right. And guess what? He makes more than me without equity. But he makes more than me. Any sales job. it's called performance pay. And when you're the best and you're very good at it, you don't put a limit. You know how many owners I meet that they're like, my guy makes more than me.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
I'm like, did you really reverse engineer and pull out a pivot table and say, if your guy's making 500 grand, that means I make it a million. Right. And if you make, I tell my guys all the time, I hope you make $10 million next year.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
But owners are like, well, he's not working as hard. He's not doing this. You built the pay structure. What do you mean?
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
I'm like, then you – here's the keys. You could go have that job. You could have any, you want to be in a store, they're making a lot of money. You go take that job. Oh, but you don't get to be in an air conditioned office. Oh, you got to pick up a night shift. Oh, you got to work weekends. Oh, you have to pick up on Christmas because that guy picked up on Christmas. And guess what?
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
That guy wasn't going to make pinnacle, but he worked one month straight because he wanted it that bad and earned equity. I think we miss how hard these guys don't have it easy. And when you're the best of the best, why would you get any one of my management, right? They could have that job. They could say, listen, dude, I'm going to go into this. And it's not a demotion.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
That's the hardest part about a sales guy is they're like, I want to get into management.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
You're going to make less money, but there's an opportunity to have ownership. And it's going to take a few steps back, but you could probably take 10 steps forward. But it's like, so you're devaluing what I'm worth. No, it's a whole different role. And it's more about leadership and communication and these different things. And it's very, very hard because they feel trapped.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
They'll never get out of the garage. And that's why we created the product specialist that can work from home to help close over the phone. So now there's a different branch that you can go different ways. And that's what people love about. They get to work themselves out of the garage as they get older. It's understandable. Last thing, guys. Let's get this going here.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
I'm going to ask you guys each a question to close us out. But if someone wants to get a hold of you, Chris, how do they do that?
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Well, TommyMellow.com is all my social. I'm more – I'm an old man. I'm more on Facebook.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Well, by the way, Daryl is D-A-R-Y-L-L. One L. One L, so we screwed this up.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Okay, so follow these guys. Reach out to these guys. Any books that, like, out of, like... You know, the greats, there's a million books, but is there one book that maybe no one's heard of that you guys are like?
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Let me read you something while you're thinking of that. Daryl. Yep. So I'm your constant companion. I am your greatest helper or your heaviest burden. I will push you onward or drag you down to failure. I'm completely at your command. Half of the things you might as well turn over to me, and I'll do them quickly and correctly. I'm easily managed, but you must be firm with me.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Show me exactly how you want something done, and after a few lessons, I'll do it automatically. I'm the servant of great people and the Ellis of all the failures as well. Those who are great, I have made great. Those who are failures, I have made failures. I'm not a machine, though. I work with the precision of a machine plus the intelligence of a person.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
You may run me for profit or run me for ruin. It makes no difference to me. Train me. Take me. Be firm with me, and I will place the world at your feet. Be easy with me, and I will destroy you. Who am I? I am habit. I get goosebumps.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Where's that from? It's just a poem. It's called I Am Habit. And I read this to all my graduates every single month. I love it.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
I changed. I will. And I changed everything by just learning. Like, dude, habits are everything. And it's so important. Like, I flossed twice a day. I got a time for it. I still throw things out of wax so time doesn't fly by. And I kind of get out of rhythm, but I could go right back in, which is rare. Because you know what happens when you get off your rhythm.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
It's tough. It's tough having a partner in crime.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Is you got to have this skill to get right back in it. And you got to be disciplined. Because if you're walking three miles a day and you stop for a month, or you get sick and you can't jump back in, it's so easy to listen to that bad voice and say, well... I love that book. What about yours?
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
I think I need, like, I'm very nervous to unpack some of these memories that I know are deep down inside. And this lady, she pulls out these Kleenexes and they're filled with this trash bag, like big, you know, just like an office trash and a see-through. And she goes, when we meditate, when we actually get the help, when we take these things, she takes out each napkin, she folds it up.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
She puts it there. She goes, this next one. She folds it up. And she takes all these out. And she puts them back in and says, there's more stuff going to be here, but we're free. We're free now. We've accepted the past. And that's a tough one for me because I know there's stuff. I don't know. Like, I don't know what's in there.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
When I watch him on stage, I'm like, he starts walking out of the crowd. I'm like, my move.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
But it's like, you know, the book, Gino Wickman. Oh, yeah. Shine.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
His newest one, Shine. He sold his company. He's on the top of EOS. He's on the top of his game.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And I love the guy. And he said, dude, by all accounts, I'm the biggest success. A worldwide training for business. I'm hundreds of millions. And he goes, I sat there. Sold, he owns 12 and a half percent of EOS now. And he goes, I was literally depressed. Like literally like very depressed. And he goes, I didn't know what to do. I had all this money. I created something amazing.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And so he writes about this in Shine. And it's true, man. It's almost like you sold a piece of your heart when you sell your business sometimes. And that's one thing that I'll never go through. I love my business, but I understand what it's doing. And I understand that it is a business. It's not a human being. And it helps a lot of people.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And I'll never leave it in a bad spot from good to great, built to last by Jim Collins, built to last. It's like, I want to leave this company and thrive without me. Because that's how good of a leader I want to become is that it did better when I was gone. Because there's no ego. I love it. And that's a different thought.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
But I'm going to have you guys give us... We talked about... And this is the best part. I didn't ask any questions on this. That's good. It was a good discussion. So we talked about a lot of things in the podcast. Talked a little bit about PE. A lot about just growing a business. Talked about some of our favorite books. Talked about hiring. Probably left some good things out.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Probably something that's heavy on the heart, something that the listeners need to hear. So one big thing to close us out, Daryl.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Ooh, I like that.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Yeah, Dr. J. Part of it, like a four-hour work week, is like – Are your supplements right? Is your sleep right? Is your water right? Is your food right? But it's not that complicated. It's like anything else. You said once you learned your KPIs, it's pretty simple. You know your KPIs are your body, your sleep, your algorithm. And all of a sudden, man, it's really not that hard.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
It's these little decisions of just... You know what? I don't want cake. You know what? I'm going to order a chicken. And by the way, order stuff that you enjoy eating because there's something healthy you enjoy. It's just so easy. Food is poison. Did you ever see who's in charge of the United States, Canada, or England? Like the health general?
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
They are fat, disgusting lards.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Dude, by the way, I'll just tell you that that's very, very powerful. Like, I got a phone call that my cousin, very smart gal, says, you know, what's wrong with you? You know, you don't look healthy. You don't love yourself. She made me go take off my shirt in the meeting. And I was embarrassed. I looked in the mirror every day, but I didn't see myself. I had every reason.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And then she said, why don't you love yourself? And, man, that was a smack in the face.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
It's not acting. It's not making decisions. It's not moving forward. It's not having the difficult conversations. I think most of stress and anxiety is dealt with is you're letting things bottle up instead of just getting it out. Rip the bandaid, rip the bandaid, rip the bandaid.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
You do that more because you're used to doing hard things. And I do believe like, you know, making decisions quickly and just living with them quickly. Like so many people live in this procrastination mode.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And they just don't know. Like it's not the right time. But what if we fail? And they're so worried. And it's like, who cares? We fail. We make $100,000 decision doesn't work. That's why my PE company, I love them. They're like, you prove it out in that market, then you can scale it to five, then you go do it.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
I love that. I meet a lot of people that are like, I want to do what you did in my industry. I go, why? They're like, because you proved it's possible. And? what would you possibly do with a hundred million dollars? And they're like, I don't know. And I'm like, well, what is it like to be at your daughter's play and not be there? And they're like, but I am there. I'm like, no, you're not.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
You're thinking about work the whole time. You think this, you never have a plan on selling, which means you're going to spend the next two decades of your children's life. We say we're all there at work, but very few people have the ability to be where And I just, I think you both make valid points. There's 168 hours in a week. Time's not your problem.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Well, the dreams, I'll tell you what, when I'm talking to my team, they're like, What's up, dude? Like, you don't dream like anybody. I'm dreaming, like, forget the solar system. Forget our galaxy. I'm dreaming about, like, every galaxy. Like, they're like, wait a minute. Why aren't you happy? We just set a record. Record day, record week, record month, record quarter. And I'm like, I am happy.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
You work for 50, you sleep for 50, you work out for 10, you still got 60 hours left. So get your time. And what you say is really... Put down a list of priorities you want your life to look like. Manifest what it looks like for me at 41. And say this is some things that – it's not happiness, but this is really what I want to do. Because trust me, the material things, they're cool at first.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Next Level Pros, baby.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
I see a lot of people get on drugs, commit suicide. Their lives fall apart. Money will ruin people quicker than it will help them. So just be very careful what you guys want. You guys made great valid points. I'm glad you're here. It was a pleasure being you, Daryl. A lot of fun, man. As always, appreciate you both.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Thanks, Tommy. Thanks for listening, guys.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
I really am. And I don't show it right. And literally, Luke, my COO, talked to me yesterday. He's like, a lot of people take you. They don't know you like I know you. And you just bug in. And you say, what's going on here? And I say, you're right. I should say, download me on this. Catch me up. And I always take the technician side because literally I'm a technician at heart.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Seven years in the field before I owned the company, but I was also the tech. And I'm like, my dreams are not that crazy. And I told the guys I was talking to yesterday, I said, for some reason, most of my dreams come true. It's like I manifest them. I reverse engineer them. And it's hard to work with people like us.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
So I'll just do an intro. You guys know I've got the garage door business.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And we're very rare. Right. And it's bad. It could be very, very toxic. And it's important that we recognize this because coming from a place of gratitude is hard sometimes because this is – I'm always driving forward because I'm like, who cares if we fall? Get back up. And everybody's like, it's not time. We're not ready. I'm like, I don't care. But here's what I've learned recently.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
What if I sat with each one of my direct reports and went through and made it their idea and actually got their buy-in? And when we sit in a room together, they say, yeah, we've talked about this. It's go time.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Rather than just saying, hey, I got an idea. Let's go. They're like, you get a lot of ideas. So I got to be careful to pull one off and put one in.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Things are going really, really well. I don't care what size you get to. There's new challenges. Like people are like, man, I'd love to be where Tommy's at, but it comes through two decades of failure. And still the anxiety and stress. Luckily, I could take this. I can take it on the chin. It doesn't really affect me. But I really feel like we're just getting started.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
We called it the T&A show, Tommy and Adam. He had equity. He did very, very well. He's got tens of millions of dollars. It's just this Cameron Harrell notion of double-double, of certain people can help you double-double. Adam was able to do whatever he wants to do, but he became a gatekeeper. And I'll say I love the guy. We're still best of friends.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
That doesn't happen with me because I've kind of shielded myself as saying, listen, guys, I'm not going to do the firing. I'm not going to put together. I stay away from things, but I'm like, I always say I live on Mars. I'm looking at the volcanoes, the earthquakes, the hurricanes, and I zoom in, but I zoom back out pretty quick. I'm not afraid to top grade.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
In fact, I had a meeting with my COO three weeks ago, took him to my house. And I said, listen, man, I'm going to be quite frank. You're the bottleneck in this business right now. You got 10 direct reports. I want to whiteboard with you. I said, how many people are you micromanaging? I said, then we need to top grade those. And I said, I'm not trying to be.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
I said, you might be better as a chief revenue officer. And I wasn't a threat. I said, you're in it to win it, right? I said... your best talent is creating revenue. You're the best sales guy on the team. You understand the best way to communicate these things to the techs. And he said, dude, he, he like said, I'm going to go to work and I will have a plan within two weeks.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And he shifted all kinds of things.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And he did the work. And luckily I have people like that on my team. I can be really honest with, right. Because I can't do that with everybody. They'd be broken.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And it's so hard, but I'm like, listen, man, I'm going to be, Like, I don't have time to worry about your feelings. I'm not trying to fire you. I'm not. You're a part of my team. You're not going anywhere. And I think people that really know me understand where I'm coming from. It's not this place of, like, I'm better or you're better. It's like, what can we do together to win?
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Like I know people that are like 5 million. They're like, that's it. I hit my cap. I'm done. I want out. I'm going to make enough money to live the life I want. And depending on your age and what you want. But I'm a home service guy through and through. I'm blue collar. My mom was a realtor. My dad was a mechanic. We came from a really, really modest house in Michigan.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And, you know, we're a team. We're not a family. Because guess what? I could get fired. The coach? I'm under a PE company. The coach can get fired if we lose. We lose enough games. We lose enough seasons. He gone.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
And that's how it works. And we're all. And I don't feel that way. It would be very, very hard to get rid of me. I work three weeks on my contract to make sure that's almost impossible. Like I'd have to really do something stupid.
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
I said yes to too many things, but I get, I realized that was, that's an ADHD thing. And I think all of us have that entrepreneurial and we say, man, that guy's flipping houses. I could do that. And then you take away from the one thing paying you the most. Because there's times that you say, we have the power to do anything we put our minds to. But what if we stayed focused on the one thing?
Next Level Pros
#131: 3 9-Figure Businesses in One Room? How Tommy Mello, Chris Lee, And Daryl Kelly Grew Their Businesses to Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Well, the number one thing is... It's very rare you meet an entrepreneur that actually learns from their mistakes and doesn't make the same mistake twice. I was able to reflect and be like, that was dumb. And so many people, like the biggest thing by far is I've kind of put my arms in the air 150 times over again and said, I need help.
Next Level Pros
#133: Increasing 30% year over year with no marketing? Will it still work?
2.5, 2.7.
Next Level Pros
#133: Increasing 30% year over year with no marketing? Will it still work?
You got us.
Next Level Pros
#145: why playing it safe might be the most dangerous move //recession prediction // next level pros podcast
As an employee that went through this, from you guys being the owners and I was an employee, what I always commended and spoke about to other people that worked at other places, like friends and family, was they were always looking at, oh my gosh, what are you guys going to do? And I was like, we're going to figure it out.
Next Level Pros
#145: why playing it safe might be the most dangerous move //recession prediction // next level pros podcast
And I thought it was so cool to experience it from an employee perspective of like, The way I perceived it was if we can get through this, when we get through this, this is going to provide an opportunity for myself to be like, hey, I was a part of that champion team that was able to get through. And these were the other people that were able to get through with me.
Next Level Pros
#145: why playing it safe might be the most dangerous move //recession prediction // next level pros podcast
And that's going to leverage myself as a better opportunity as an employee later on down the road.
Next Level Pros
#145: why playing it safe might be the most dangerous move //recession prediction // next level pros podcast
Yeah, we had so many company-wide meetings that you guys were bringing this stuff up and you guys were like, look, We don't even know what we're going to fully do in the next month or two months, but we need you guys. Like if you guys aren't here, we're going, we need to figure this out. I thought that was like really cool to experience.
Next Level Pros
#145: why playing it safe might be the most dangerous move //recession prediction // next level pros podcast
And then in hindsight, you know, you fast forward one or two years down the road, you start remembering those times and it becomes like what you were talking about. Everybody loves a common enemy. When you go through a tough experience like that, it creates a bond and
Next Level Pros
#145: why playing it safe might be the most dangerous move //recession prediction // next level pros podcast
And Vivint had one of the greatest stories to get through that. Being able to come to their own employees and ask for money.
Next Level Pros
#145: why playing it safe might be the most dangerous move //recession prediction // next level pros podcast
What I want to highlight with that, too, is you can't wait until the recession hits to try to bring morale and culture together. Like that was fostered of years of good culture.
Next Level Pros
#145: why playing it safe might be the most dangerous move //recession prediction // next level pros podcast
Yeah, 52% of Fortune 500 companies were started in a recession.
Next Level Pros
#145: why playing it safe might be the most dangerous move //recession prediction // next level pros podcast
Why do you think that is? I love the idea of just an industry shift. I mean, and we experience many versions of recessions every day in our lives and experiencing the real world. And one of the coolest things I've learned from both of you guys is when we studied Outwitting the Devil by Napoleon Hill and how the devil, if it was like an entity, how it would control you.
Next Level Pros
#145: why playing it safe might be the most dangerous move //recession prediction // next level pros podcast
And one of the best tools it would use is complacency, being stagnant, just kind of on cruise control. And so when you have these recessions, it's all cyclical. And after the recession, there's always a boom right after that. And that boom is caused by the companies directly in this example or the people that are able to figure it out and see this recession as an opportunity rather than a threat.
Next Level Pros
#145: why playing it safe might be the most dangerous move //recession prediction // next level pros podcast
It's been wild. Whether you agree with Trump or not agree with Trump, regardless, there is change happening. There is change.
Next Level Pros
#145: why playing it safe might be the most dangerous move //recession prediction // next level pros podcast
And we were able to figure that out in the solar industry during the sickness we might not say on the podcast, but we made a huge pivot from going from door-to-door sales to remote sales.
Next Level Pros
#140: How To 10x Your Outcome // Recapping Our Grant Cardone Interview // Next Level Pros Podcast
Yeah, we don't believe that there are lazy people out there. We believe that there are unclear people out there. Clarity creates action. When you're unclear, you don't know what to do. If I want to get in shape, but I don't know how to get in shape, I'm probably just gonna sit on the couch. So what's the best way to create clarity? Dude, you got to go in and you've got to actually map things out.
Next Level Pros
#140: How To 10x Your Outcome // Recapping Our Grant Cardone Interview // Next Level Pros Podcast
You got to sit down. Something that we teach in our NLS system is the five-year plan. A lot of people, they overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in five. And so what we've built out is this amazing system to teach you guys how to go and back things up from five years out into one year.
Next Level Pros
#140: How To 10x Your Outcome // Recapping Our Grant Cardone Interview // Next Level Pros Podcast
Because if you wanted to get $100 million in one year, that might seem kind of egregious, but we could probably do it in five years.
Next Level Pros
#140: How To 10x Your Outcome // Recapping Our Grant Cardone Interview // Next Level Pros Podcast
100%.
Next Level Pros
#140: How To 10x Your Outcome // Recapping Our Grant Cardone Interview // Next Level Pros Podcast
When you guys were on the doors, how what was the feeling going through that again? I mean, like you guys were building up something special. You guys had a great vision. Chris, you just came out of like this crazy bankruptcy situation, but I want to know when you're on these doors, you kind of have to start over essentially. What are you feeling and experiencing on every door?
Next Level Pros
#140: How To 10x Your Outcome // Recapping Our Grant Cardone Interview // Next Level Pros Podcast
Daryl, when you were and Chris getting back together and starting K2K up in Quincy, you probably had every reason to brush Chris off and be like, you know what? I watched what happened. I don't want to be a part of that anymore. I'm going to do my own thing. I'm going to build my own thing. I'm going to be a part of something else.
Next Level Pros
#140: How To 10x Your Outcome // Recapping Our Grant Cardone Interview // Next Level Pros Podcast
What was it about Chris and that situation that made you want to work with that again?
Next Level Pros
#140: How To 10x Your Outcome // Recapping Our Grant Cardone Interview // Next Level Pros Podcast
I think that's awesome to hear because I think, you know, just as a normal person, probably your knee jerk reaction is to brush people off based off of their failures, especially big failures. But what I really have enjoyed viewing your guys' relationship and hearing specifically that is
Next Level Pros
#140: How To 10x Your Outcome // Recapping Our Grant Cardone Interview // Next Level Pros Podcast
is you didn't let that failure define your guys' relationship, your guys' who Chris is as a person or yourself as a person. And instead it. I mean, I'll tell you, I'll tell you.
Next Level Pros
#140: How To 10x Your Outcome // Recapping Our Grant Cardone Interview // Next Level Pros Podcast
I love how Grant talks about taking accountability for what he did, what he could have done in his position. I mean, he's worth nearly $10 million at this point. There's probably a lot of reasons why he didn't have to blame himself. Something Daryl and Chris that you guys talk about a lot is, as you get better at what you do, your excuses also get better.
Next Level Pros
#140: How To 10x Your Outcome // Recapping Our Grant Cardone Interview // Next Level Pros Podcast
100%.
Next Level Pros
#140: How To 10x Your Outcome // Recapping Our Grant Cardone Interview // Next Level Pros Podcast
In order to know the roadmap of where you want to go, a lot of us focus on the destination. We all want to know where we want to end up and we want to be rich and famous or whatever it might be. But you can't put in the directions on your phone without also putting in exactly where you're at.
Next Level Pros
#140: How To 10x Your Outcome // Recapping Our Grant Cardone Interview // Next Level Pros Podcast
I think to your guys' point, that's the whole point of being so rawfully truthful with yourself to be like, you know what, I'm going to hold myself and this is exactly where I'm at and this is how I'm standing right now. And if you're not doing that, you can't know where you're going to go or how you're going to get there.
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
So if I could make up that perfect vacation home in Hawaii with land, waterfall, river, house, like this is it in real life right here.
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
No, it's, it's, it's incredible. When you say a King lived here and you walk on a property, you're like, this is fit for a King. The location itself is,
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
Um, well, I'm really blessed. I had an awesome father who was really good at showing love and spending time and, and showing how to really create connection as a father. And so that was really instilled in me. I knew I had a dad that always would come home, be excited to see me, um, give me a big hug and was always there to support me in anything I was doing.
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
And so, um, you know, I feel like that's, that's an attribute that I've been able to carry on from my dad. When I come home, I'm
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
good at being with my kids and you know I care a lot about that connection and that time that we have together because I know how quick they're gonna grow up and so you know that's been a huge influence on me in my life and the impact of having a good father in the home and you know my
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
parents having a good relationship and just feeling like family and home is the best place you could you could ever want to be and I want to make sure I perpetuate that with my kids and so when you talk about money and having fun and all that like to me that's not getting on the golf course or you know running away it's it's creating opportunities to connect with my kids and my family where I can really invest my time and experiences into them so
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
for me i'd say that's been my number one influence there and then obviously um you know spiritually making sure that christ has centered my life i feel like the the blessings that i've been given in my life i i don't feel like are the merit of my own um works i feel like i've
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
I need to always stay humble and grateful and recognize the blessings that God's given me because I have an abundance of what the Lord has given me and I don't want to take that for granted. So making sure I'm keeping that centered.
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
Never stopped. Dude, that's, that's the hardest part.
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
It's one thing to finish, but then to have that stamina to keep going.
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
The nature is incredible here. The plants, we had some rain today. The grass is beautiful. Local tropical fruit and all of this. Yeah, just the whole house and body is the experience.
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
What was it like first to finish? Like I want to hear what that was like.
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
Yeah. So I want to get my eating dialed in to where I know what I'm putting in my body. And I understand what my macros and my protein and the calories, I never count that. And, um, I think it would go a long way if I'm focusing a lot more and not like grabbing quick energy food out of the kitchen and just shoving it down the goal.
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
Um, Probably carbs at night. Like, if I just reach for a bagel and cream cheese at nighttime and I'm about to go to sleep, that doesn't sit well, you know?
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
But, I mean, that's a quick, easy fix. If you don't want to do dinner at night, you're just going to throw down.
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
Right. First case of a type one diabetes was just cured with stem cell therapy for the first time.
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
good stuff well dude uh what's next what's next for you what are you working on in what domain just all the domains what are you what are you working on um just getting to the next level i think that getting uh getting to a certain height and then getting you know getting to the point where you have to break through a glass ceiling i think that's kind of where i'm at what motivates you
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
um progression realizing that to get to the next level i have to become more but also yeah what motivates me is opportunity i want i want more opportunity i feel like i feel that restriction of that glass ceiling which is just a byproduct of me. And, and, um, to get to the next level, I need to become more and, and learn how to develop myself to the next stage. So yeah, more freedom.
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
And then this saying in 10 years, you're going to look back at your time right now and be like, oh, that was the glory day. That was the golden age. Or do you feel like 10 years from now?
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
I think I set out your property today. But I walked around.
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
Trust the unknown.
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
Do you feel like trust is in opposition of control? Because I feel like part of that means we have to let go of control and realize that in some ways we really don't have control of an outcome, but it's,
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
Is there a facade of control that we probably have?
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
Letting go of control is realizing like, hey, God has a plan. Right. And all that you can do is be the best version of yourself, except that whatever you can do and whatever you're blessed to receive is and accept whatever that path looks like versus trying to, you know, shape that path ourself.
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
Yeah. One of the really fascinating and interesting books I listened to this year was called Imagine the God of Heaven. And it's a lot of people that have had near death experiences that had out of body experiences, saw their life in review. And one of the interesting ones was this lady who talked about she saw her life
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
And all the choices that she made were like ripples in a pond that had all these effects. And she saw that her life had a path. There was something for her to learn. And all the decisions she made in her life were like these rose compasses that kind of led. But they all ended up leading to the same spot. But it didn't really matter how she got there.
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
And she just realized that no matter what she did, there was something in her life that she needed to go through to learn. And that there really wasn't any avoiding it. Right. And so she could have done all these different avenues in her life and choices, but they all would have led her through this path where she would have had to learn and grow. And there was just no avoiding it.
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
And I think that's part of letting go of control is realizing like, hey, God has a plan. Right. And all that you can do is be the best version of yourself. Yeah. And accept that, like... whatever you can do and whatever you're blessed to receive is is and accept whatever that path looks like versus trying to, you know, shape that path ourself.
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
Yeah. Yeah, I guess. And then one other story in that book is about this woman who was in this horrific situation, you know, extreme fear, extreme anxiety. She's in a terrible situation, has this near death experience, looks back at her, her current circumstance and sees her life in review. And her mindset is just like, it's all OK, because she sees what's next, which is this amazing
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
like glory beyond description and um she ends up coming obviously back into her body and waking up in that situation and her her peace and her calm that she felt in that circumstance even though nothing had changed she was still back in this exact same horrific she just knew that in the end it's all okay it's like her perspective changed to an eternal view where it was like yeah like what happens right now doesn't matter because this is what's next and you know she ended up getting out of the situation all worked out but
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
Um, just that perspective that what really matters is what's next after this life. And whatever happens here is not a big deal.
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
Mentorship is really big for me. I feel like I learn really well through others.
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
I'm very curious I ask a lot of questions and I've always been really drawn to people around me that have had that are further down the road and have gotten to where I want to get to and I I love earning time with these people to kind of mine what the journey is like like if I can forecast and kind of see a little bit of what that looks like and help me navigate through that a little bit more.
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
I feel like it gives me some of the wisdom of not having to go through so many struggles on my own and kind of helped me adapt the mindset of what it takes to get there. So that's been really helpful. And I have a 30 minute commute to and from work every day. And so I've learned I really enjoy Audible. Whenever I'm driving, I can pound through a whole bunch of books.
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
What's been your favorite one recently? Profit First. Profit First? Yeah. Nice. Who's the author of that? I don't remember. Jared, do you remember? Michael something. His last name is tough. So I really liked that one. And then Patrick, but David's your next five moves. That was a great solid.
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
Um, I would say, I would say yes, because you know, my path in the door to door industry, I felt like was successful because I really latched onto leaders and not a pay scale and not a company. I latched onto the leaders that I felt like, Hey, this is someone who's creating a life and a future. that I would like to have and I want to follow.
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
And so I just highly valued the people that I was allowing to influence me. And that was my focus more so than, you know, an individual pay structure or or the company title. And that got me really far in life because I learned what good leadership looked like. I learned what culture was like and the things that I wanted to create in my own life. I was getting firsthand education. And so
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
that mentorship became an anchor in my life. And I was very different than my father. My dad was a very brilliant guy, mechanical, mechanical engineer, very practical, a type personality. And I was very creative. And so, you know, my my dad hammered through school. He kept all of his college books. He would still read them like he was just always thought I always thought I'd do that.
Next Level Pros
#134: Hawaii House from “The Bachelorette” Filled with 9 Figure Companies
but like i don't think i've cracked them yeah yeah i can remember buying every every college book i bought i'm like i'm gonna read this one oh i spent 300 on this so and i forgot to sell it back so yeah so my dad good for him yeah i mean and my dad's advice was like stay in school and get a job but my path led me to entrepreneurship and so i had to really latch on to people that understood that world and um i had to learn it through you know just firsthand
Next Level Pros
#144: Grant Cardone & Gary Brecka Fallout // How to Build Better Business Partnerships // Next Level Pros
So Chris, I know something that's been really valuable as a framework we laid out. And I know it was at a time when we were trying to figure out how to create a partnership with other people. Yep. How do you create a partnership where it could fall apart within a short period of time?
Next Level Pros
#144: Grant Cardone & Gary Brecka Fallout // How to Build Better Business Partnerships // Next Level Pros
Do you remember that?
Next Level Pros
#144: Grant Cardone & Gary Brecka Fallout // How to Build Better Business Partnerships // Next Level Pros
Well, I think one key piece you're missing out is that we were a part of other organizations before that that were promising equity and delivering nothing. Right. And so we were like, all right, we're going to enter into our business in a way that we can deliver. So we had to come up with a framework so that we didn't put ourselves in a bad situation. Absolutely. But then we could deliver.
Next Level Pros
#144: Grant Cardone & Gary Brecka Fallout // How to Build Better Business Partnerships // Next Level Pros
Right.
Next Level Pros
#144: Grant Cardone & Gary Brecka Fallout // How to Build Better Business Partnerships // Next Level Pros
I think one hard conversation you need to have as partners is having equity in the company does not give you a job in the company. Equity only gives you your portion of distributions, but it does not guarantee a job. And a lot of times people think, oh, because I have equity, I have to have a job in the company that has to pay me.
Next Level Pros
#144: Grant Cardone & Gary Brecka Fallout // How to Build Better Business Partnerships // Next Level Pros
When in reality, that could be one of the worst things for the business.
Next Level Pros
#144: Grant Cardone & Gary Brecka Fallout // How to Build Better Business Partnerships // Next Level Pros
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I think there's a lot of things that partnerships can do. The conversations have to be constant, especially if your business is growing. You have to constantly revisit, understand perspectives. And then sometimes our conversations are, hey, bro, what's going on? Like, I can tell you're frustrated.
Next Level Pros
#144: Grant Cardone & Gary Brecka Fallout // How to Build Better Business Partnerships // Next Level Pros
You know, we've had that many times where I've come to you or you've come to me and it's like, what's going on?
Next Level Pros
#144: Grant Cardone & Gary Brecka Fallout // How to Build Better Business Partnerships // Next Level Pros
Counterclockwise.
Next Level Pros
#144: Grant Cardone & Gary Brecka Fallout // How to Build Better Business Partnerships // Next Level Pros
I think what's tough too is like when your business transforms or changes a lot, which theirs did, right? They went from like concept, great brand to like boom. You know, Gary's everywhere, Grant's talking about it. all of a sudden the partnership has to change too. And I think they probably just had expectations that were never changed. And so now they're just completely misaligned.
Next Level Pros
#144: Grant Cardone & Gary Brecka Fallout // How to Build Better Business Partnerships // Next Level Pros
We've worked about 17 of the 20 years.
Next Level Pros
#144: Grant Cardone & Gary Brecka Fallout // How to Build Better Business Partnerships // Next Level Pros
You know, I think we had like a lucky fortune at the very beginning of our working relationship because we worked together. We were like jiving. Everything was going really well. We brainstormed really well. We were excited. We were ambitious. And then we split. Yep. Right? And then that split, we didn't talk to each other for almost two years. Yep.
Next Level Pros
#144: Grant Cardone & Gary Brecka Fallout // How to Build Better Business Partnerships // Next Level Pros
And then we came back together, formed an idea, started another business, led to another business. And so I think like us realizing how... Childish it was to just not have the level of communication to to resolve the issue right taught us like alright We just need to start resolving issues faster
Next Level Pros
#144: Grant Cardone & Gary Brecka Fallout // How to Build Better Business Partnerships // Next Level Pros
You know, you bring that up. I think commitment's really important. And I think the way that I sit is I'm 100% committed in our relationship working together. The minute you're not, I'm 100% willing to let our partnership split. Because we have to be 100% in or not. And I think what happens a lot of times is people will start to waver and then they feel like they're stuck or whatever.
Next Level Pros
#144: Grant Cardone & Gary Brecka Fallout // How to Build Better Business Partnerships // Next Level Pros
And then it just creates like a sour situation. Right.
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#144: Grant Cardone & Gary Brecka Fallout // How to Build Better Business Partnerships // Next Level Pros
Bad timing. Bad timing.
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#144: Grant Cardone & Gary Brecka Fallout // How to Build Better Business Partnerships // Next Level Pros
The value of that is it gives you the opportunity to have the honest conversation at any time. Right. Right? So instead of like, oh man, we don't... This could go sour. This could be really tough. It's like, no, we already know what we'll do if it gets to that point. Right. Let's have the conversation and just not get to that point or resolve it so we can move on.
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#144: Grant Cardone & Gary Brecka Fallout // How to Build Better Business Partnerships // Next Level Pros
Right.
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#144: Grant Cardone & Gary Brecka Fallout // How to Build Better Business Partnerships // Next Level Pros
So the truth is we've had partnerships that have not worked. Yep. Right? We've struggled from the beginning. They just weren't a good fit, and we acknowledged it and parted ways. We've had relationships that were – or partnerships that start off really good, and then we got to a point where we parted ways. And then we have people we still work with to this day. Yep. Including each other.
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#144: Grant Cardone & Gary Brecka Fallout // How to Build Better Business Partnerships // Next Level Pros
And I think one of the things, the mentality of a partnership should be one where – you're willing to give way more than the other person. Yep. It's basically like going to war where it's like, if my guy's injured, whether that's physically, mentally, emotionally, like I got to hold down the fort. I got to take care of everything. I got to like, it's my responsibility with no, no, no, no regard.
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#144: Grant Cardone & Gary Brecka Fallout // How to Build Better Business Partnerships // Next Level Pros
Like you, it's, it's on you. And I think that's something that served us well, where it's like, we are not trying to play equal. We're not trying to play fair. It's like, I'm going to give you more. And then you're like, well, I'm giving you way more. And so it's like this competition of who can give more to the business or to the relationship.
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#144: Grant Cardone & Gary Brecka Fallout // How to Build Better Business Partnerships // Next Level Pros
And removing our ego of like, I deserve this or I deserve that. Yep.
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#144: Grant Cardone & Gary Brecka Fallout // How to Build Better Business Partnerships // Next Level Pros
Typically it goes back to what you're talking about. I share my perspective, you share your perspective. We figure out if we're talking about the same thing from a different perspective or sometimes just two things completely different that we thought were the same thing.
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#144: Grant Cardone & Gary Brecka Fallout // How to Build Better Business Partnerships // Next Level Pros
Right. He didn't show up before me or he didn't do. Right. Right.
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#144: Grant Cardone & Gary Brecka Fallout // How to Build Better Business Partnerships // Next Level Pros
I think the other superpower that we have as a partnership is we can make decisions quickly. And there's always times, multiple times, where we disagree with each other. And then we look at it and we're like, OK, who has the ultimate decision? Who's ultimately responsible for the outcome of that decision? And then it's usually, okay, I disagree with it, but you're responsible.
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#144: Grant Cardone & Gary Brecka Fallout // How to Build Better Business Partnerships // Next Level Pros
If you really believe in this, then I'll let you make the decision, the ultimate decision. And then if it doesn't work out, I'm never going to say I told you so. I'm never going to come at you again because... No, because once I give you that opportunity to make the decision, I give you that power, I have to 100% back you up.
Next Level Pros
#144: Grant Cardone & Gary Brecka Fallout // How to Build Better Business Partnerships // Next Level Pros
But I think it's a superpower because think of how many times we're like, I disagree, I think it should be that. And then it's like, okay, who's ultimately responsible? All right, go for it, move. And then you make decisions. And the nice thing about that is the faster you make those decisions, the quicker you get to the right solution.